Spotlight: Team Plasma

Like previous games, Pokémon Black and White have their own resident evil team that you have to face numerous times throughout the game play. However, unlike Teams Rocket, Magma, Aqua and Galactic, Team Plasma is not after control. Their goal more simply is the freeing of Pokémon from being slaves to humans. Team Plasma sees humans as below them, having already opened their minds to the Team Plasma ideal. They believe that the bond between Pokémon and Human is akin to that of Slave and Master respectfully; Pokémon are ordered to do what their trainers want and it is this that will break apart the Human-Pokémon bond. They ask people to free their Pokémon so that both Humans and Pokémon can be equal for once; they should think unselfishly about this decision. I think you can agree with them on this one.

By opening the spoiler major plot points WILL be revealed. You’ve been warned.

[spoiler]Unlike previous evil teams, Team Plasma has better Public Relations skills at recruiting members. In Karakusa Town and Souryuu City, they physically address the public, explaining who they are and their ideals. At the Abandoned Site of Dreams, they attempt to catch a Munna in order to spread their ideals throughout peoples dreams.

Team Plasma certainly has the most interesting uniforms of the five Teams so far. Their grunts are dressed like knights yet they have a kind of futuristic look about them and their ‘Admins’ known as the Seven Sages are dressed in differing coloured robes, along the lines of the rainbow colours.

There are many facets that make up Team Plasma. Commonly is the grunts, these guys are the cannon fodder from Team Plasma and have fairly common Pokémon in their arsenal such as Minezumi, Miruhoggu, and Pokémon from the area. They are caught up in Team Plasma’s ideals and take out their orders without hesitation.

[Place where pokejungle would’ve put an image, had he found one]

Next comes the Dark Trinity. Little is known about them except that they were recruited by Geechisu and serve only Geechisu and N. They appear many times throughout the game, looking and appearing like Ninjas.

The Seven Sages are next in rank and while having positions akin to admins in the previous teams, don’t actually challenge you. Vio, Ryokushi, Giallo, Rot, Sumura and Asura are nothing but hindrances and are never battle-able. Dressed according to the colors of the rainbow with some quite heavy-looking robes on, they don’t really have much to do with the storyline except being busted by the player.  When you find the sages for Looker they’ll reward you with a TM.

The Seven Sages are run by Geechisu, a somewhat tyrannical leader and manipulative father of N. Despite being the leader of Team Plasma, he has different goals, Team Plasmas reason for stealing Pokémon being so that he could have the only Pokémon in Isshu and dominate the region. After the player defeats him, he is taken captive by Cheren and Adeku, but it is later found out that Dark Trinity broke him out of jail and that he is on the run. Dark Trinity say that they are the only ones still loyal to him. Could this allude to the next generation?

Finally is N, son of Geechisu and King of Team Plasma. His major characteristic is that he has an ability to make Pokémon his friends. Nearly every time he battles the player, he uses Pokémon from the area, alluding to his ability to befriend Pokémon. This exception is during the Elite Four/N’s Castle incident. It is not until Raimon City that he reveals himself to be king of Team Plasma. He remains unaware of how his father Geechisu manipulates him until the end when Geechisu rages at the player’s interference. When N hears this he sets his Pokémon free and leaves on the back of Zekrom/Reshiram and is never seen since; realising his mistakes. N’s major goal is not as different from Team Plasma’s he wishes to create separate worlds for both Pokémon and humans, so that Pokémon are no longer being used by humans.

In conclusion, like communism, Team Plasma’s ideals are idealistic, but put into practice and things don’t seem to go as planned. Yet it doesn’t surprise that Geechisu was vying for control, it wouldn’t really be a Pokémon game without someone like him. Their outfits are a bit ‘out there’, but the music for Team Plasma and N are a step up from the previous Teams’.[/spoiler]

Excellent article contributed by Silver, who has also helped me with translation work during the BW launch :]

ps- Getting great fanart submissions!  Keep ’em coming!!